Music Row, Nashville’s country music industry publication, is reporting that country albums are down 17% in quarter three this year. While this news seems old for anyone whose musical taste is slightly outside the Rascal Flatts-set, it’s surprising given country music fans still strict adherence to still paying for albums.

The downturn in sales is likely tied to the fact that the Eagle’s Long Road Out of Eden was classified as country on its release last year, and sold over a million copies. But where other musical forms are experiencing serious upticks in digital sales (as much as 30% by estimates this year), country’s digital album sales are only up by 22%.

This shows that country fans are less likely than their hip-hop or rock counterparts to buy albums online, and country fans aren’t buying albums like they used to. This could mean either that they’re illegally downloading the albums, or that there hasn’t been a lot of albums worth buying for the mainstream country fan (which seems like the likely explanation). Apparently fans actually care more about content than anything else. [Coolfer]